Boar's Head Brand | |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Delicatessen meats and cheeses |
Founded | 1905Brooklyn, New York | , in
Founder | Frank Brunckhorst |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | United States, Dominican Republic, Panama, Mexico |
Key people |
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Products | Franks, deli meat, cheeses, hummus, condiments, soups, pickles |
Revenue | $3 billion [1] |
Owner |
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Website | www |
Boar's Head Provision Co., Inc. (also Boar's Head Brand, or Frank Brunckhorst Co., LLC) is a supplier of delicatessen meats, cheeses and condiments. The company was founded in 1905 in Brooklyn, New York, and now distributes its products throughout the United States. It has been based in Sarasota, Florida, since 2001. [2]
The company is not publicly traded. Shares are closely held by the founder's descendants. [1]
Frank Brunckhorst began distributing cold cuts and hot dogs under the Boar's Head name in 1905. By 1933, distribution of Boar's Head products had grown, and Brunckhorst and his partners, Bruno Bischoff and Theodore Weiler, [3] decided to open a manufacturing plant. The first plant was started in a small building in Brooklyn with three employees.
Brunckhorst's son (also Frank Brunckhorst) took over the business; Frank Brunckhorst II died in 1972 at age 65. [4] During the 1990s, the expanding company added processing plants in Virginia, Arkansas, and Michigan, [5] and it began to shift its strategy toward its current business model that stresses exclusive relationships with supermarket chains. [6] [7] In 2001, the company moved its headquarters from Brooklyn to Sarasota, Florida, in part because of a close three decade-long partnership with Publix, which is based in nearby Lakeland. [6] [8]
For many years, the voice-over in Boar's Head commercials was supplied by the voice performer Joseph Sirola. [9] In 2008, the company opened an "experimental" retail outlet in Brooklyn, [10] [11] which closed the following year. [12]
With an initial reported case of illness on May 29, 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) determined a listeriosis outbreak traced to Boar's Heads products, linked to 10 deaths and 59 hospitalizations as of September 25, 2024. [13] Unreported illnesses may have accounted for higher actual incidents of illness. This represented the largest listeriosis outbreak on record since 2011. [14] The company immediately recalled a large selection of products. [15] In July 2024, the company issued a recall on over 7 million pounds of its products produced at a plant in Greensville County, Virginia, near the town of Jarratt. [16] On September 13, 2024, Boar's Head announced that the Jarratt plant would close indefinitely and sales of liverwurst would be permanently discontinued. [17]
Ongoing monthly inspections from August 2023 through July 2024 at the Jarratt plant reported black mold, surfaces contaminated with "meat over-spray", and an unknown substance dripping from the ceiling. The Food Safety Inspection Service had observed multiple noncompliance findings every month from August 2023 through July 2024 in a 44-page report. Noncompliance was found in operations, labeling, and sanitation performance standards. [18] [19]
Multiple lawsuits were filed against Boar's Head following the listeria outbreak alleging a wide range of complaints from false advertising to wrongful death. [20]
Jarratt is a town in Greensville and Sussex counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 652 at the 2020 census. In 1848, Jarratt was a stop on the Petersburg Railroad. Jaratt was incorporated in 1938.
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The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is the public health regulatory agency responsible for ensuring that United States' commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. The FSIS draws its authority from the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906, the Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957 and the Egg Products Inspection Act of 1970.
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The 2014 Macedonia listeriosis outbreak was an outbreak caused by Listeria food poisoning.
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